And You Loved Things Just Because
by lovablegeek
Summary: PreS1 - When all they give you are the clothes on your back, you'd better learn to dance. Spoilers for Fragments. - One shot


Tosh hadn't adjusted to the feeling of _space_, in her own flat or here in the Hub. Spend enough time in a cell so small a taller person wouldn't have been able to lie down sideways without head and feet touching the walls, and open space seemed like a foreign concept. She hadn't even realized it until she stepped out of the prison facility at Jack's side, and almost couldn't breathe, seeing the sky overhead.

One of the stranger things to readjust to was the way things echoed, especially in the Hub. The echo of dripping water seemed so loud it was all she could focus on for a while. Suzie dropped a tool, and Tosh jumped so hard she nearly fell out of her chair. She bit her lip, stared intently at her computer screen and did her best to retain her dignity. It would get better. It _was_ getting better.

Already on edge, Tosh didn't _quite_ jump at the sound of Suzie's voice across the Hub, but she did tense instinctively.

"Jack!" For all that there was a comm system in place, and a secure chat program right on the computers, Jack and Suzie's preferred mode of communication in the Hub seemed to be shouting at each other and hoping the other was somewhere they'd actually be _heard_. For a moment, Jack didn't respond, and Suzie added, "Jack, it's much easier to do my job when you don't ignore me."

Tosh glanced to Jack's office - her desk was directly between Suzie's desk and Jack's office, and Tosh couldn't decide if that was so she could ask for help if she needed it, or so they could keep an eye on her for another reason altogether. Not that she'd complain either way. She wasn't exactly in a position to complain.

The last time she saw Jack, he was in his office, but she couldn't see him now, and it wasn't as if there was a lot of room to hide in there...

"I'm listening." Jack's voice echoed from the balcony, and both Tosh and Suzie looked up sharply. At least Tosh wasn't the only one constantly startled by Jack. She wasn't sure whether to be impressed or a little disturbed by the way he made hardly any noise when he moved.

Suzie, after the initial surprise, didn't seem particularly impressed. "UNIT just called. They're politely requesting our assistance."

Suzie's tone implied that 'politely requesting' wasn't the term most people would use.

Tosh didn't miss the way Jack's eyes flickered to her at the mention of UNIT. She pressed her lips together and glanced back to her own computer screen, as if there were actually something there to catch her attention.

"I can tell them we're busy," Suzie said. "It's not like we don't have our own-"

"Remember the comedy of errors that happened the _last_ time we left UNIT on their own?" Jack asked, starting down the stairs from the balcony. "Took us a week to clean up their mess, _and_ now the SUV computers occasionally try to eat the internet. I'd rather avoid a repeat performance. What's the problem this time?"

"Some energy phenomenon they can't figure out. They have it contained at the moment."

"Great." Jack reached the ground floor and started for the lift. "Send whatever information UNIT gave you to the SUV computers. Toshiko, with me."

Tosh froze. "But I haven't- I'm not..."

Trained for this.

Ready to deal with UNIT.

At all sure of what she was doing.

Somehow, Jack seemed to pick up on all those meanings. "We train on the job here. Only way to do it. You know what they say. When all they give you are the clothes on your back..."

Tosh slid reluctantly out of her chair at the desk and followed him to the lift, wondering vaguely if there might be some equipment she should grab, anything she should bring with her. "What?"

Jack stopped on the lift, turned to face her, and held out a hand, grinning. "You'd better learn to dance."

Tosh was fairly certain she had never heard anyone say that in her life, but she smiled and took his hand anyway.

* * *

Training on the job was not what Tosh would have called it, if asked, though she wasn't entirely sure some of the words she would have chosen were appropriate for a work environment. The "energy phenomenon" turned out to be alive. Containing a creature of pure energy wasn't difficult, relatively speaking - UNIT had already done that anyway, by the time she and Jack got there.

Jack muttered a comment about how that was typical UNIT, locking up what they couldn't handle, but Tosh noticed he didn't seem to have any qualms about locking it up himself. The real problem was _moving_ the thing once contained, getting the containment unit onto the SUV and into the Hub, all an interesting trial of ingenuity.

Tosh would have thought it was some sort of test for her, if Jack hadn't started cursing so much halfway through.

She transferred some of the CCTV from the cells to her laptop before going home, and for some reason kept watching it on a loop, leaving it alone for a few minutes before coming back to it... She felt sure she should have left it alone ages ago, but something kept drawing her attention back to the screen.

Tosh sighed, shoved herself away from the desk - one of the few pieces of furniture she had in the flat - and paced to the window. She hadn't drawn the blinds, even this late at night; it was nice to be able to look outside, just to remind herself it was there. She rested her forehead against the glass, watched as a car passed slowly by on the street outside, and thought of things that had nothing at all to do with the mundane world outside.

The creature didn't speak. Couldn't, probably, and Jack told her that wasn't unusual for the aliens around here, but there was something about the way it moved, the way those movements changed when someone approached, or spoke to it... It could be language.

It could be trying to communicate. Or...

Tosh glanced back at her laptop screen, the image of the creature still visible. It could be speaking. But then again...

* * *

The cells made Tosh nervous. No surprise there. But she'd been in worse, so as she walked down the stairs to reach them, her shoes clicking softly on the concrete floor, she drew a breath and pulled together her composure. Most of the cells were empty, but for the one at the end, the air humming softly with the electric field of the containment unit they'd set in the cell. Ordinary walls wouldn't contain the creature.

Tosh stopped as she reached it. The alien was just a blue glow, oscillating slightly; it shifted and changed as she approached, taking on something resembling a human shape. Tosh rested her hand lightly against the plastic wall of the cell.

"Hello," she said softly, attempting a smile. Hard to smile, seeing the thing trapped for no other reason than that they didn't know what it was. But then, she learned, not that long ago, that freedom wasn't a right. It was a habit.

"My name's Toshiko. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

It spun, blurred, wavered like a candle flame. Tosh couldn't decide if that was an answer, or just a reaction to her voice.

"I'm new here." As if she could expect an alien to understand her... "This all probably seems as strange to you as it does to me."

The alien shifted, the humanish shape solidifying. Not enough to fool anyone into thinking it _was_ human, but an obvious imitation. It twirled in a small circle, arms swept out to its sides, and Tosh frowned. It could have been communication. It looked like dancing.

Slowly, Tosh took a step back from the cell, her eyes still on the alien, and spun in a small circle herself. If it was a language, she might as well try to speak it.

She stopped as her spinning brought her around to face the doorway to the cells, where Jack stood, watching her with the faintest smile. Several different excuses sprang to mind - for why she was here, for what she was doing, and a few just to excuse looking like a complete idiot - until she realized there was nothing in Jack's expression to suggest an excuse might be necessary. She wasn't sure how to classify what she _did_ see there.

The smile broke into a chuckle, and he stepped out of the doorway, walking down the line of cells toward her. "Told you, didn't I?"

Tosh thought for a minute, trying to remember which of the thousand things he'd told her since she met him might be applicable to the situation, and smiled.

_Better learn to dance._


End file.
